by Raven Snow
“Todd, come away from there,” said an adult’s voice. Rowen’s heart pounded even harder. “Come sit down,” the adult continued.
“But, Mom. I heard cussing.”
“Of course you did, sweetheart. That gross man Monica married doesn’t know how to talk around children.” The door closed. It sounded as if the adult had dragged her son away from the door.
Rowen exhaled slowly and gave Flint a gentle shove forward again. He went along with it, though he did deliver one last glare over his shoulder. They made it around the corner and along a long hallway. Flint seemed to believe there was a way out over there. Rowen was more interested in the words that suddenly came through the wall.
“Thirty million from my estate goes to Lydia Greensmith,” continued Cox, pausing only briefly before moving on to the next item on the list.
“What?” was the questioned that echoed the most through the room. The question was even on Rowen’s lips. What in the world was going on here? Sure, they may have liked each other, but thirty million? That was more than her relatives were getting.
Flint reached back and gave Rowen’s arm a sharp tug. She wasn’t going to get her answers here anyway. Rowen continued until they were back in the wine cellar and climbing the stairs out of the door. Someone had parked them in, but Flint made due, taking his four tires up a hill and through some grass. “What was that?” he asked, once they were actually on the road.
“I know!” Rowen couldn’t keep it inside any longer. “Seraphina gave Aunt Lydia millions! What was that about? They weren’t that close.”
“I was referring to you trying to sacrifice me to a small child back there.” Flint sat up a little straighter in his seat. “You were going to let them find me so they didn’t find you.”
“That’s not true!” Rowen snapped before she could even admit to herself that, yeah, maybe it was a little true. “I was just trying to help you regain your balance. Besides, you were about to make me fall over.”
Flint rolled his eyes. “Fine,” he said, making it clear that he didn’t believe her before he changed the subject. “I guess the next course of action is to visit your aunt and see if she knows?”
“I guess. She’d be at the store around this time of day…ideally.” Aunt Lydia did have a tendency to wander away from the store on a whim. With all that was going on, she might be looking for distraction in her work. They would still need to check there first. “I can tell you where to go. It’s not far from our office…Now what was up with Cox doing the will reading? I thought he was there for the divorce.”
“I never really talked to him about Seraphina. Maybe he helped her draw up her will in the past…or just recently. It’s hard to say. It’s entirely possible that he worked with her finances and stuff, that they had some kind of business relationship.” Flint lapsed into silence for a moment as if to think about that. “We never talked to each other about our work much, not beyond the case we were working on.”
“Could he be a suspect?” It was the question at the forefront of Rowen’s mind. She didn’t have anyone to suspect yet. It was about that time. It was past that time.
“Cox?” Again, Flint fell silent. “Maybe,” he said, finally. He sounded uncertain, though. Rowen didn’t care for that. She needed more answers, and she needed them now.
Chapter Thirteen
Odds & Ends was quiet and understaffed. Not that the New Age shop ever got a whole lot of attention from more than housewives and teenagers who liked to either keep to themselves or goof off. Honestly, Rowen liked the vibe of the place most days. The lights were always dim. It smelled like incense. Ambient music played in the form of gentle woodwinds and nature sounds. Sure, it was a little corny, but it was quaint. It also broke even profit-wise rather consistently. It gave her aunts and uncle something to work together on. It was nice; sort of their little mark on this town that wasn’t just something for Lainswich to be scared of. Rowen liked to think it even made them more approachable as a family.
Today, there was just a housewife discretely thumbing through some books in the back. Aunt Nadine perked up at the front desk when she heard the little bell over the door ring.
“Just us,” called Rowen before she could even bother standing from her chair.
Aunt Nadine gave a little sigh and Rowen heard her sit back down. “Us?” Aunt Nadine cringed when Flint came into view. To her credit, she collected herself better than the rest of the family. “It’s been a long time.”
Flint nodded, offering the woman a smile. “It sure has. It’s good to see you again.”
Nadine just gave a noncommittal nod. “What brings all of you here to our humble shop? I’d appreciate the help, but we’re not very busy today.”
“I was actually swinging by to see if Lydia was around,” Rowen explained.
“Oh, she’s part of why I don’t have anything to do. She’s in the back making work for herself like a complete madwoman.” Aunt Nadine said this like she had never done it herself.
“Is she okay?” asked Rowen.
“Well, you know she’s been through a lot recently. I’m sure she has a lot on her mind, the poor dear.” Nadine motioned them to the curtain that led into the back room. “Go talk to her if you need to. I’m sure it can only be a healthy interruption.” She eyed Flint a bit as he came with Rowen into the back.
Sure enough, Aunt Lydia was back there moving boxes and categorizing crystals at near the speed of sound. She talked to herself as she did. What she was saying was indecipherable, but it was clear to anyone that something was bothering her. Rowen cleared her throat to get her attention.
Aunt Lydia was completely taken by surprise. She gave a small shriek and dropped her box. Quartz scattered across the floor. Rowen and Flint immediately ducked down to help her gather it up. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
Aunt Lydia stopped kneeling down to gather up the crystals when the others moved to get them. Her gaze was fixed on Flint now, like she wasn’t sure what gave him the right to be in her back room.
“Rowen asked me to come along.”
Lydia turned her gaze to Rowen as if silently asking, “Why?”
“Pressing question,” Rowen explained. "Were you and Seraphina very close before she was killed?”
Lydia’s eyes went wide for a moment as if struck. “You know we were.”
“No, I mean, were you, like, super close. Were you the best of friends, former lovers, long lost sisters? One of those things? Two? More?”
“What are you talking about?” Lydia took the filled box from Flint and brought it to a table to sit down. “I certainly hope we weren’t two or more of those three things.” She gave an involuntary shiver. “Why in the world—”
“You can’t say anything to anyone yet.” Rowen exchanged looks with Flint. She knew he wouldn’t approve of her telling Lydia at all, but Rowen knew her aunt. She could keep this to herself if it was important to the family. She could pretend she didn’t know until someone told her officially. That would no doubt be soon. “You can’t even tell Nadine or Rose.”
Lydia wasn’t often serious, but her brow was furrowed now. She looked at Rowen, watching her intently, trying to read her. “Tell me,” she said finally, her tone quite serious.
“Seraphina left you a whole lot of money in the will,” Rowen blurted, not sure how else to come right out with it.
Lydia raised an eyebrow. “How much?”
Rowen glanced over to Flint as he walked to the other corner of the room. She licked her lips before answering. “Thirty million?”
Flint returned with a chair just in time for Aunt Lydia to blindly sink down into it. “What?” she asked.
“Thirty million, I think.” It sounded even more ridiculous now that she was saying it out loud. “Do you have any idea why she would do something like that?”
Lydia had gone a bit pale. She looked like she might even throw up. This wasn’t the happy news it might be to some people. Lydia was pleased with her lot in life
. She had never expressed any desire to inherit a large lump sum of money. “That’s too much. That’s much too much. The police are going to ask questions again.”
That had been Rowen’s first concern too. They had taken in Julia, now they were going to give Lydia another round of questioning. She was a person of interest all over again, even though Rowen sincerely doubted Ben would be able to pin any of this on her. Granted, the case would probably be handed over to Tarricville soon, now that she thought about it. If they tried to make Lydia a suspect, heaven forbid, that would be a definite conflict of interest.
“What do I do?” Aunt Lydia’s fingers tapped idly at her bottom lip. Her eyes were on Rowen so intently that it kind of hurt. What was she supposed to say when she didn’t have answers for her?
“Is there any reason why Seraphina might have left that money to you?” Flint stepped into the conversation while there was still an awkward pause between Rowen and Lydia.
Lydia’s gaze moved off into the distance. “Not that I can think of. We weren’t all that close, you know. We were friends, but I assumed she was using me for the divorce. She was pleasant enough to be around. Even after she had the evidence I could provide her with, she liked to have dinner or swing by here sometimes.”
“The shop?” Rowen asked for clarification.
“Yes. She said it was quaint.”
“Go through your day like usual. Don’t tell anyone you already know about the will. Just wait until that news comes to you,” Flint said firmly, though he did look over at Rowen to make sure he wasn’t overstepping any bounds talking to her like that. She nodded.
“Let us know when Cox calls,” Flint continued. “He’s the one handling the will. He should call you soon. If the police call you after that, just tell them you’re tired of all this fuss and that a lawyer recently offered to help you. Give me a call after that. This isn’t really my area, but I think I can get all of this nonsense to back off for a while.”
Lydia stared at Flint, neither ready to accept his help or object to it. “Do you have any other plans?” Rowen finally asked her, and Lydia shook her head. This was clearly more than she had bargained for today, and she was already on edge.
The walk outside was a silent one. Now they just had more questions on their hands. Visiting Lydia hadn’t solved anything. It only clarified that she was just as confused as they were. “So, what now?” Rowen was feeling lost, completely drained, and out of sorts. She needed that gut feeling back. She needed an idea.
“I’d like to talk to Cox, but I can’t really until he calls your aunt.” Flint was no doubt worrying that Cox would wonder why it was they knew what they did. Hiding in the walls during that sort of thing seemed more than slightly shady. “Don’t worry, though. That should happen soon.”
“And until then, what?” Just as Rowen asked, her phone rang. “Good timing,” she said when she answered it. The caller was Rose, meaning there was a good chance that a new bit of information was coming her way.
“What were you thinking?” asked Rose. Her voice wasn’t angry. It was breathy, almost a whisper like she was baffled.
Rowen stopped cold on the sidewalk. “What?”
“It’s all over the news right now.” Rose was still whispering. Rowen guessed she was in her personal office, trying to keep her cousins outside from hearing how freaked out she was. “Julia Martinez had someone at the will reading. They heard about the upset with Mom being left so much. Then they had footage of you and Flint leaving.”
Rowen looked at Flint. She didn’t tell him anything, but her expression must have said enough. “We’ll be there in a few minutes. We just saw your mom, by the way. She’s fine. She doesn’t know about…Channel 2 yet.”
“Wait on going back and telling her, will you? Just get here first.” Rose hung up.
Rowen took a deep breath and looked at Flint. “We have a big problem.”
Everyone was in the main room of the Lainswich Inquirer building, gathered around the new flat-screen they’d just had installed. A Channel 2 news reporter Rowen didn’t recognize was standing in front of Seraphina’s house with what was, apparently, one of the women from the will reading. She had a blank expression and a baby she was bouncing on her hip. “And how do you feel about that?” asked the reporter.
The interviewee shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t really know much about Mom’s friends. She had a lot of them.”
“And the friend in question here would be Lydia Greensmith, the woman who not only had an affair with your father Darren Hawthorne, but was the woman who was also helping to facilitate his divorce.”
“Yeah.” The interviewee cast an uncertain look around. “He wasn’t really my dad, so…I mean, like I said, I don’t really know her friends.”
“But would a friend really deserve that much money?” It was obvious that the reporter was trying to get the kids angry. She wanted them offended that they hadn’t inherited more. Maybe they were angry. This was a bad place to show that sort of thing, regardless.
Rose hit the power button. Rowen was glad for it. She couldn’t stand to watch any more of this herself. “I thought Julia said she wasn’t going to do this sort of thing anymore,” Peony said sadly, a frown creasing her doll-smooth skin.
“Just goes to show you can’t trust anyone,” her sister said with an overdramatic sigh, her eyes on Flint the whole while.
“At least this means we can go ahead and talk to Cox,” Flint offered Rowen, completely ignoring the horrible look Peony was giving him.
Rose nodded. “See what you can do about getting Lydia out of this on her end. I’ll talk to Julia, I guess. We can try to do some damage control with the blog, but I’m not sure how that’s going to pan out. You know how Lainswich loves a scandal.”
“You deal with that then.” Margo was already standing, shrugging on her purse. “I’m PR now. Let me do my job out there. You’ve been too patient with Julia, too trusting of her. Let me handle this.” The tone Margo was using was one Rowen wasn’t sure she had heard often from her, if at all. She knew Margo was trying to stop mooching off people and lazing about. Most of those habits were still there, but it seemed she really did have a passion for this liaison stuff. Either that or she just wanted to go beat up Julia. It was hard to say.
Rose opened her mouth to object, but Margo cut her off. “This really shouldn’t be up for debate. You’re stressing out too much over this, Rose. Let’s just do what we’re good at, all right?”
“What should we do then?” asked Willow, motioning to her sister.
Rose took back over. “Willow, you go with Margo. Peony, you stay here and help me out.”
The sisters looked disappointed, but they did as they were told. Willow grabbed her purse and followed Margo. They nearly ran right into Eric on his way in the door. He started to say something to them as they left before he realized Rowen was there. “I guess you saw.” He motioned to the television.
“Rose called me,” Rowen said with a nod, going to her husband then stopping. Things still felt a little chilly between them. Let him hug her first. Wait, did she even want that? Oh, this was just a mess. They needed to make up already.
“I was going to call you, but I figured I’d run over here first for more details.” His eyes flicked to Flint as he spoke. “You two still investigating?”
“About to go do a touch more of it,” Flint said with a nod.
“I could help,” Eric said immediately. “Let me go lock up the office. It won’t take long.”
Rowen shook her head. “You have that case you’re working on. Let us take care of this. I don’t think there’s a whole lot you could help with, to be honest.”
Eric frowned at that. “I’m sure I could do something.”
“We’ll call you if we need you,” she promised. “It’s not like I can derail your work every time something like this happens.”
“But—”
“I’ll be fine. My phone has a full charge. Just give me a call if you g
et worried. It’s not like I’m alone. Flint will be with me.”
“Wait, so now it’s supposed to be dangerous?” Eric looked to Flint who gave him a helpless sort of shrug.
“We’re just going to talk to one of my lawyer friends. I don’t think it’s supposed to be all that dangerous.”
“We should get going,” said Rowen, even though she mostly just didn’t want to stand here and argue with her husband any longer. It did occur to her that she still hadn’t kissed him today. She leaned in to do that. Eric almost didn’t even notice, so the kiss turned into something awkwardly chaste. “I’ll see you later tonight,” Rowen promised.
They said their goodbyes and left, going right back to Flint’s car. There was no point in not taking it now. It had been on the news. Rowen expected a call from Ben sometime today. She almost hoped the case had been taken from him and given to someone else already. Explaining herself on this one wasn’t something she was looking forward to. “How far away is he staying?” she asked Flint.
“Not too far. I think he wormed his way into staying with a friend while he’s here. Your only hotel is probably a little too…rustic for his tastes.”
“But not for yours?”
“I find it quaint.” He put the car in gear and punched something into his cell phone before pulling onto the street. “Speaking of quaint, that little show of yours with Eric was adorable.”
“What are you talking about?” Rowen asked, even though she knew. He was talking about the kiss and that general cloud of awkwardness between them. She sighed when her question went unanswered. “Oh, I don’t know what I’m doing anymore. One of us needs to apologize. I just need to be the bigger person and do it.”
